Rorschach's Journey
by Solomon Constantine
Summary: Having just learned the true meaning of life, Dr. Manhattan couldn't bring himself to kill Rorschach. Instead, he came up with a quick plan: He'd fake his death, warping the vigilante to another dimension. Unfortunately the masked hero doesn't like what he finds past the event horizon...


Disclaimer: Peacemaker, Watchmen & Justice League and its characters © DC

* * *

-Be not afraid. This will all be over soon…

As his eyes made an incredible effort opening up, Rorschach felt his stomach turn, he wanted to puke. His whole body was vibrating; he felt his every limb shaking with great force. He observed his surroundings, it all made sense then. He was in motion, his whole body floating as it moved at an incalculable speed. Long an thin streaks of light were all that composed the otherwise empty vacuum that was carrying him… That and Dr. Manhattan's floating face.

-Walter, I…

He didn't even bothered to check if he was able to talk before abruptly blurting out his words, interrupting the Doctor.

-I am as much Walter Kovacs as you are Jon Osterman, doc…

-Sorry, Rorschach, I am here to explain to you the reason why you are here.

What did he mean with why was he here- wait, Veidt, his plot, the fake alien. It all came booming down on him, his brain almost couldn't take it. Too much information. Too short time.

-I have to stop him…

-I'm afraid not, Rorschach. I'm sorry but you had to be stopped, and I knew I couldn't convince, you. In our universe, you're dead.

-What do you mean in our universe? Where am I? Is this…

-No Rorschach, as far as I can perceive reality, there probably is no heaven. You are right now traveling through an Einstein-Rosen Bridge: a wormhole. I came to this decision after I saw how determined you were to reveal the truth, and as much as I saw the need to kill you, I had just come to appreciate the miracle that is life, and you and I had what others would call a friendship, as stranded as it was. So I decided to instead fake your death, a mere nanosecond ago, leaving completely human remains with your same DNA on the ground. In less than a second I will have fooled Veidt, Dan and Laurie into thinking you're dead, and thus, making Dan too afraid to try to tell the world of Adrian's plan, and making Laurie feel better about choosing Dreiberg over me. As for Adrian, don't worry, a short time after this, I will make a comment that will make him realize how futile his actions will be in the future, I will make him see that he has ensured peace for only a decade, at the most…

-NOT TO WORRY?! The man kills millions and all you do to him is make a sardonic comment to get him down? Fuck you John.

-He'll kill himself after months of self-torture, Rorschach, his ego will not recover. He'll just walk out of Karnak one day and keep walking until he collapses to hypothermia.

Rorschach smirked.

-Serves him right…

-I am quite surprised that you're not asking where you're going to.

-Do I have a choice?

-There is always a choice, even if it's not the one you really want.

'Always such a fortune cookie. Screw you John.'

-I was getting to the point, don't get impatient.

'Good. Now you can read my mind too. As I said: Screw you.'

-Fine, where are you taking me?

-It is an alternate universe. Since all of this is taking place within less than a second in our universe, however, I have not been able to look too deeply into it. But for what I can see, in this world vigilantes are allowed to operate, in fact they are idolized, some even have powers, though they are not at my level. While I am not really sure if your methods will be approved there, at least you can rest assured knowing that your vigilantism certainly is.

-Basically you're telling me that you have no idea of how this world is, but there are vigilantes, and some even have one or two of your little knacks, and they may or may not want me dead. How reassuring.

-It was the best I could do given the circumstances. You are about to reach the event horizon, the point of no return. I hope you can forgive me for doing this, and I wish you live a long, good life there…

-Wait! John!

-Yes?

-Is the public going to know about the journal I left? Are they going to find out the truth there?

-Actually…..

Lights. Motion. Emptiness. Then nothing.

Fuck.

Suddenly he was standing on a street, feeling dizzy and alienated. He put his mask above his nose and vomited on the street.

* * *

[System Recovery. 89% complete.]

[93% complete]

[97% complete]

[100% complete. Welcome back Cyborg.]

Victor Stone, a.k.a. Cyborg, was lying on the ground, groggy and disoriented. His head (the organic part, at least) was hurting; and he had no idea of how he had got there, actually, he had no idea of what had happened in the last hours. He touched his forehead, trying to ease the enormous headache he was suffering. Then he realized why he had lost his recent memories: he had a hole in his head, the metal part of his head.

-What happened?

[Server crashed. Received mild damage in 0.78% of the brain and severe damage in 37.6% of the main cybernetic brain interface.]

[Backup memory of the past 3 hours has successfully been recovered.]

-Access backup.

[Memories accessed.]

He had been called by Batman.

-Cyborg. Batman, here, Watchtower systems have detected and unidentified surge of energy in Central City, along with a strong gravitational force, it all points to an inter-dimensional portal. Since you can teleport, we figured you're the one that can get there faster.

-Seriously? I'm the one that can get there faster? In CENTRAL CITY?

-Flash is on a covert mission retrieving an important piece of equipment from Bialya, while Superman is endorsing a public education program, since he feels guilty about that movie having his name*, with both of them unavailable the next most logical conclusion was you.

-You know, for a guy that is being constantly followed by a clown, you sure don't laugh enough.

-Just get to it and inform us about what you find there. If anything goes wrong, sound the alarm, we'll get there.

-Ok, send me the coordinates and I'll boom there.

* * *

Rorschach's Journal. October 26, 2013:

The moment I finished vomiting I realized this world was completely different from mine. An old newspaper was lying on a muddy puddle, ink diluting in the dirty water as I picked it up to check the date. 2013, this is not only and alternate world; it's a _future_ alternate world. I read the thing as best as I can. Economy is down the toilet, violence is rising, a group of homosexuals organized a "pride parade" to promote their degenerate lifestyle, the president addresses the seriousness of child obesity while neglecting his own troops, which are apparently at war with the middle east…

Summarizing, the presence of costumed vigilantes in this world makes as much difference to the big picture as it did in mine: none. Or so it seems.

Suddenly I heard screaming near my location. I ran to see what was happening. A prostitute had been attacked by a man, probably a mugger, her pimp or some angry client. I ran to him, but he grabbed the girl and held a knife to her throat, blood was gushing from her stomach, indicating she had already been stabbed once.

He told me that if I did anything, she died. I got my hands on the air, pretending to surrender. Fortunately the Doc had given me my mask back, otherwise the man would've seen my eyes placing themselves on the dumpster next to me. Looking for possibilities. Then I saw it: a bottle.

I quickly grabbed it and threw it to the air on top of the man. He instinctively pushed the woman away and got some distance to avoid the breaking glass. As it broke on the floor, he looked at Rorschach, his eyes blazing with the lust for revenge. He told me I should not have done that.

I saw no reason not to.

The man ran towards me, holding the knife high, aiming at my chest. Amateur. It was very easy to swiftly grab his arm, pulling it to my left side, as my right knee broke his elbow. Obviously he dropped the knife when he felt the shrieking pain. I stabbed him in his left eye with it. The whore screamed, I can only assume that's not what vigilantes usually do in these parts. The guy had a gun. I kept it, might come in handy in the near future.

She was dying, held to my leg. Told me to call 911. But I told her it was inevitable: she was going to die. Might as well spend her last moments in prayers, rather than waiting for an ambulance. As she dies, she's still holding on to my leg, I shake her off of me, she finally passes, with her hand in the air, begging me to help her, it took her more time than it should have.

As I get out of the alley I see a bright light flashing in front of me. A half-man, half-robot comes out. First thing he does upon seeing me there was transform his arm into some sort of giant gun, pointing directly towards me. Asked me to identify myself, and whether or not I came in peace.

I told him the truth, my name was Rorschach and I was expelled from my home world for trying to save it. He seemed trustworthy, or at least able to get me up to speed with this world. He believed me, told me his name was Cyborg. He proceeded to tell me about the Justice League of his world and how they had gotten together. I asked if they had anything even remotely similar to my world's Dr. Manhattan, he told me about this "Captain Atom" a man with the physical abilities of the Doc, but just the mind of a simple human. Sounded too got to be true, I'll find that out later.

From the rest of the conversation I figured that here superhero is the common term for vigilantes, since the metahumans, or Manhattaned version of people, are the most common of the lot. I also found out that there are things in this universe like mythological figures, gods, demons, magic and, the most unsettling of all: aliens. Humans not only welcomed strangers from space, but also worship one as their greatest hero.

Unbelievable, how can they trust them so blindly, how are they sure they don't have their own agendas.

However, it was only after he started discussing the League's facilities and methods that the conversation really became unsettling. They have a Watchtower. In space. They systematically monitor the whole world and, should they decide something is wrong, end conflict with their squads. As he kept talking incessantly (hoping to recruit me, no doubt) I was still coming to terms with the idea: citizens from around the world were being policed by a group of people that are basically living weapons, that can decide whatever they deemed wrong to be finished. It wasn't just a flawed concept, it was a totalitarian regime, government is merely an illusion in this world, since the fate of humanity is clearly at the hands of the League, but also their potential demise. This fascist movement is led by the appropriately nazi-named Superman** who is the most powerful being on the planet, according to Cyborg. He could make me disappear with only his sight.

Doesn't amuse me. I'm sure that in a world with many Manhattans around, they are not as powerful as they seem.

I told Cyborg that I wanted to meet the Justice League. See if I could help them, join them. He said he would take me to them, and offered me his right hand for a shake. Fortunately I'm left handed, since giving him my right hand made me able to shoot him in the head point blank with the left. He fell to the ground, hopefully dead. And I walked away. Determined in my resolve that I would do things my way, and if the League was against me then let them come and end try to end it. I'll get some good weapons, get ready.

* * *

As Rorschach was walking away, he noticed someone was watching him from a short distance, arrogantly resting his body against a light pole.

-Hey man, I saw the way you dealt with Cyborg. That was some damn good peace keeping, if you know what I mean. You know, letting him talk, lower his guard, it was a rookie mistake on his part, but still, pretty impressive.

He was wearing a white shirt, jeans, and some strange, metallic military helmet. His left arm had a big tattoo that read: PEACEMAKER. He was smoking a cigar.

-Peacemaker, I assume.

He winked at him as he made a gun gesture with his hand and fired.

-Hit the bullseye, Sherlock. I love peace so much I'd kill for it…

-What do you want?

-Nothin' I was just watching how you beat some League ass, and I said: 'You know what? I kinda like that guy' that's it.

Rorschach stared at him for a while almost a minute, hoping he'd give up and go some place else. But instead the guy got serious and started talking.

-It's the League, I can't stand it. Always getting in the way. I mean, with their reach they are a far worse threat to peace than freking arabs.

-You set your goal too high.

-Think I don't know that? That I can't singlehandedly beat the League? That peace is not achievable? I do know. I know it's just an illusion, but so what? What sort of moral or social issue is actually real? None. Everything's a farce; it's a joke, it's all a joke. So I figured: why not just go along with it in the most exaggerated way possible? If peace is a joke then I'm going to be a freakin' comedian!

Rorschach smirked, mainly because he knew Blake would've too, had he been able to hear that.

-What's your plan?

He pointed at his helmet.

-I have access to League communications, that's how I found out about this. I really wanted to see what came out of the hole. Lucky for me it was a guy that's just like me!

-So, you want to take down the League?

-Nah, like I said before, that'd be impossible, at least for now. My plan is to use their communications to find the assholes that take a crap on humanity's hopes and dreams, and you know, 'peace on them.'

-Seems like we want the same thing, then…

-Good, let's go then. Funtime's about to start! And I bet you'll want to hear the punchline!

* * *

-Cyborg to Justice League… I n-need… backup… Th-this is really messed up…

-Batman here. Superman's on his way Cyborg. What happened?

-R-Rorschach...

-Cyborg? CYBORG?!

* * *

Rorschach's Journal. October 27 2013:

This place is a worse dump than the one I came from. People suffering, dying, starving, all while their heroes neglect their pleas, their cries for help, to do what? To stop a guy that shoots lasers at a bank or blows up a statue of the president. Pointless, really. But that's where I come into the picture. Thanks to the help of my new ally, Peacemaker, I have been able to systematically track and terminate many of today's plagues. The only reason I have decided to work with him is the resemblance of his views to those of Edward Blake, though he has proven to be a very effective crime fighter.

Still, I feel void, empty. I feel like I lost the big fight, only to fall into an even bigger fight.

Nothing makes sense, I fight for justice and I know it doesn't exist, it's an empty concept. And unlike Blake or Peacemaker, I cannot embrace a lie, not wholeheartedly. I'm basically fighting crime because I have nothing else to do.

_No other higher purpose_.

John, if you can read this, if you can hear my thoughts in whatever distant cloud you're playing god in: You should've let me die.

* * *

*'Waiting for "Superman" a 2010 film about the problems of Public education in the U.S.

**Hitler followed the concept of Ubermansch (translated: Superman) as a stage of genetic superiority, ergo: the Arian race.


End file.
